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Brian Burke believes the luck of the Irish helped him land Morgan Rielly, the defenceman he badly wanted in Friday’s draft.

Rielly confirmed he shared the GM’s heritage, despite the unusual spelling of his surname.

“It was a typo,” Rielly said, hinting that a government or immigration official must have gotten it wrong many years ago. “But I was taught ‘i’ before ‘e’, except after ’c’. ”

Burke’s parents come from County Roscommon and County Mayo.

“I’ll have to talk to him about that name,” Burke teased. “Where my family comes from, they spelled it differently. But it didn’t hurt that he’s Irish.”

Two podiums down from Rielly in the interview area was childhood friend Griffin Reinhart, though he didn’t even notice Rielly obscured behind the giant Toronto media scrum while the Islanders pick at No. 4 hardly had anyone stopping by.

“This is all very surreal,” Reinhart said. “We were in the same minor hockey league all the way up to bantam. Then he left for Notre Dame College. He’s been a good friend of mine. This is definitely cool. I’m very proud of him. It’s great to be here with him right now and maybe (the NHL).”